Australia's immigration detention centres were inadequately prepared and
failed to anticipate violence, a report said Friday, following unrest and
protests inside the facilities.
The report comes as Australia endures flak over its plan to
ship asylum seekers to Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.
The government's workplace safety agency Comcare said
detention centre staff were underprepared for potential violence, protests and
attempts at self-harm by detainees, the ABC said.
There were clear indications that riots at Sydney's Villawood
centre were "reasonably foreseeable" but "no critical incident
plans were in place for staff to follow, should such a situation occur,"
it said.
Nine buildings were torched in wild protests at the facility
in April involving up to 100 detainees who pelted firefighters with roof tiles.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said he was taking the
report seriously, but insisted that parts of it were inaccurate and the
government had already taken steps to rectify some of the problems highlighted.
Australia has a policy of mandatory detention of asylum
seekers arriving by boat, with the main processing centre on the remote Indian
Ocean outpost of Christmas Island.
The island has been wracked by unrest in recent months, with
reports that one man, who is believed to have been detained for about a year,
has spent the past three weeks sleeping in a mock grave he dug himself.
Christmas Island was hit with three nights of rioting last
month, during which detainees used improvised weapons and lit a number of
fires, prompting police to use tear gas, flash grenades and "bean bag'
bullets.
More than 2,000 boatpeople have sought refuge in Australia so
far this year.
Source : AFP
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